Osteospermumsnet.com - flutter your foliage, pick your produce, shake your seed packets and bring your blooms to the Spring Show

[Lexilicious]

Welcome to the gardening quiche :)

Earlier malarkey was here

All welcome whether you are a Sackville-West or a Dimmock, an Oudolf or a Swift. Whether you dream of digging or dig for dreams.

Fair weather or foul, we've got disco lights in the potting shed and fairy lights on the terrace. Bring gin, wine just doesn't cut it round here.

Thymes would be perfect for that, I think, echt. Would camomile work too?

You are clearly unwell, Harriet.

The doctor will see you now.

My Mum has caught the plant buying bug. She left the fair with 3 trays

hello, I haven't had much to post about since the beginning of the thread, but I went to a carboot sale today and got a fantastic haul of plants! I bought two large pots of crocosmia (about 8 in each) for £1 per pot, 5 hydrangeas (tiny but only 50p each!), a pot of yellow irises for £2, and a pot of day lilies for £2, so loads of great plants for under £10. There were also two teak steamer chairs which I didn't get but totally regret now as it's just what we need in the garden.

My iceberg roses are all growing well now (they were tiny little things from some website and I wasn't too sure if they'd do well) and the rose on the front of my house has glorious reddy pink huge blooms which smell lovely. It's an inherited rose and I'm clueless as to what it is.

Can anyone recommend a nice climbing yellow rose?

hello everyone, isn't it glorious?

Did the three sisters planting in the round veg garden. Had a long discussion about how to do it, I have always done spokes of a wheel rows but DH has gone for concentric circles. He paced it out and marked where I was to put the sweetcorn in

Loads done this weekend.

Am perplexed about my dwarf french beans. Planted them a few weeks ago and have had nothing come up. Decided today to have a dig around and see what's going on. There's nothing there! At all. No bean seeds; all gone. Where did they go? Must have planted 80-100. Am starting to question whether I planted them at all.

how annoying - was it mice?

Our first lot of French beans disappeared. I gave up & reused the compost. Then loads appeared. But I had served out the compost .

it was 16 for £20 eek ... I also got three basils, two tarragons, three sages, lemon verbena, hyssop, oregano, feverfew and oh oops another thyme . The additions to my thyme fetish were Peter Davis, Archers Gold, lemon variegated and broadleaved. I then had a very herby afternoon splitting existing horseradish, chives, two marjorams and an oregano, and I got 14 offspring of those potted up for sale to feed my addictions

I completed my own 'Scarborough Fair' herb pot (parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme) and also did a small one ready for a gift for someone. Nobody in mind, but there's sure to be a housewarming or similar, some time.

Still haven't started any more sown veg - will have to put aside an evening this week to do it as we're away for four days over the weekend.

First flower opening on the sissyrhincium (sp.?) and loads on the pond iris. must figure out what it's called.

I've done lots of planting out and a huge amount of weeding this weekend, although if you saw my garden you wouldn't think I had removed any weeds at all!

My roses have a bad greenfly infestation so I have treated them, I'm hoping they'll be alright.

It has been so hot here that even the cat has abandonned the greenhouse, it's been perfect weather for enjoying the garden.

I need to sow more veg - I'm not very good at succesional sowing - I thend to think spinach - done rather then planting a few on a rotaional basis.

Speaking of spinach some of my tiny spinach plants have already gone to seed

Have just about enough seeds to try again with the french beans - wasn't the mice as I could tell where they'd been in the pea bed & the other beans but no tell-tale signs in the french beans. DH was speaking to his mother earlier and apparently there is a 'disappearing french bean' phenomenon this year as she and some of her friends have had the same problem. Must be the weird weather.

Humphrey - I think it was you who recommended the Solanum Glasnevin when this thread started in its original form last year. Just wanted to say that mine is looking amazing right now!

I just noticed that last year's parsley has gone to seed.

I think I'll sow some more parsley and coriander, in the hope of having some surplus for the school fete.

Next door's solanum Glasnevin is looking fabulous, too. I have the white one (auteovariegatum) but it's being swamped by the clematis Montana. I need to do some serious pruning on both fences.

My glasnevin is nearly covering my front door. I am inclined to leave it, and make everyone come round the back!

I managed to claim an extra 6ft of space in the borders edge the lawn this afternoon. I only get round to it about once a year but it does look nice now. And suddenly I seem to have bare soil to put new plants in. Genius! Planted out lots of rudbeckias, some more echinacea and helped DS to pot up a trough full of herbs and wildflowers.
DH planted out about 10 courgette plants and red cabbage but the cucumbers have all been gobbled by a slug so pelleted the greenhouse with organic pellets.

You've all been ever so busy.

My plastic greenhouse also collapsed. I'm going to superglue it together today because I'm fed up of it falling to pieces every time it's a bit breezy.

Can anyone recommend a very small apple tree? I have about 6ft of sunny flower bed and a fence so I could train it or have a small, more upright one. I'm not fussy, I just need a small tree and lots of apples.

Commiserations on the collapsing greenhouse, Grockle.

I don't know what variety it us, but I have a minaret apple tree which I got years ago at a plant swap. It's not hugely productive, but it's very pretty. For a while I had a clematis growing up it, which made it even lovelier.

Ooo, they are lovely. My dad has a couple of Ballerina trees which are good too. I shall order two in the autumn. Thank you.

What I don't like about the minaret is that it does look contrived - nobody could believe that a tree would naturally grow that way - but in spring when it is a stick of blossom it is delightful.

ComeIntoThe GardenMaud - thanks for the chamomile suggestion, and I've found a whole screed of Aussie plants you can trample on, so I'll, as they say, give it a burl.

Ah, good. I wasn't sure if it would cope with the heat in Oz. And please call me Maud.

Should my verbena bonariensis be showing new shoots by now? everything else that I was expecting seems to have woken up for 2012.

My verbena bonariensis doesn't seem to be doing much yet - one plant is looking quite shooty, but the others are just sitting there.